CAMP Basement

Last night Jake and I went to The City Arts and Music Project to see Warpaint. When we got there, there was also an exhibition on for an online magazine, the name of which I cant remember. An illustrator I really admire had his work up there. www.benjaminphillips.co.uk

This was nice, and he did some lovely drawings on the window. But the rest of the work was mainly a load of shite. It was about the most east london fairground of pretentiousness I have ever come across, and reminded me of exactly how I would NEVER want an exhibition to turn out.

Here's some videos of warpaint. They're awsome.

Beetle Foray

On Tuesday Jake and I went with the Natural History Museum Beetle department on a beetle foray! It was fun. I found the grand total of 3 beetles, and won a prize for lucky guesswork.

We went to Chiswick House for the hunt, and I would very much like to go again, it was pretty. When we were searching the depths of the woodland for beetles there were cute little mice running around. And there were mushrooms, and nice trees, and statues, and dog walkers.

Henry Moore Textiles

On Wednesday I went to the Sainsbury Centre at Norwich UEA and saw the Henry Moore Textiles exhibition.

I'm not usually too keen on Moore's sculpture work, but it was really interesting to see the results of his passion for print.

Post-war, Moore worked with a print company (will look up the name, I can't remember it) and designed a whole load of patterns that got printed onto small square silk scarves, as a way of working with the rationing of material.

Alot of the prints were based on his sculpture work, like 'family', which is a couple and child sitting at a table. The image was then repeated in lines to make the pattern. I really liked the different' colour combinations that Moore experimented with, and how the images had a sketchy quality to them, with overdrawn lines, with colour then in layers on top. I'm not sure I'd like to make prints that looked

similar to these, but at any rate I would like to own

one of the scarves! There were also some interesting very large prints, and photos of the when they were actually printed. It all made me want to be back at Camberwell and doing some printing.

Here's a link to the exhibition.

http://www.scva.org.uk/exhibitions/current/?exhibition=77

Gunter Grass- Cat and Mouse

I hadn't read an excellent book in a long time, and it was beginning to make me feel a bit empty. I read Cat and Mouse on holiday a few weeks ago, and it filled that gap. I won't try and explain the story, just please read it.
To make matters even better, it has an awsome cover, designed by Gunter Grass himself! Does the joy never end.

Summer Projects

1. Loneliness poster series. - I want to make a set of posters raising awareness of loneliness, and hopefully be reminders to act kindly and generously.

2. Alphabet Magazine. - Am making firstly a one-off magazine to use up old interviews. Magazine is going to be a folio pack of hand printed posters. Am currently transcribing the interviews, then need to design posters in time to print when I return to Camberwell. After the one-off, the magazines will come out in alphabetical order, with each issue's content falling under a particular letter.

3. Continue research and drawings of Ali Bey magic act (great grandad) for graphic novel/animation?

4. Develop floral patterns. - for example wallpaper. Each week aim to buy a bunch of flowers and draw from all angles and stages, eg. bud, leaf, half bloom, full bloom, so I will have a floral vocabulary, of sorts, with which to design a pattern for each type of flower I choose. I then would like to develop these into prints once I have access to Camberwell Studios again.

5. Camberwell Summer project. -25 A5 drawings under various titles to do with family, personal beliefs, etc. Have started on this- can't decide what approach is best. I would definately like all the images to be linked, eg through a story. So am experimenting with a graphic novel style approach, trying to link a story to the headings without it being corny.

Floral Posters

My Nanny asked me to make two posters for a stall she always runs at Hunstanton Flower Festival. I made a poster last year as well, it's just a list of prizes for the 'Grand Draw' with flowers round the edge, on an A1 piece of mountboard. Last year I used sweet peas as the flowers, but this year really couldn't decide. I had real trouble finding a way to create an arrangement of flowers to draw, and repeat in different angles/positions round the border. I tried peonies from life, but in the end just did online research as to existing drawings of flowers, and adapted them.

I looked a lot at Pierre Redoute, but can't remember the names of the other artists.

Unfortunately, I also forgot to photograph my finished posters. I did blue text, and pink roses as a frame. It was ok in the end.

This was my poster from last year...

It was ok, I liked the sweet peas. But this years poster worked a lot better as a whole image. The text was bolder and more stylised, and in a darker shade of blue.

Final Exhibition

This is my piece hanging in the exhibition, kindly photographed by Becca. It seems like a long time ago now. I wasn't too happy with my end result, to be honest. I liked the parts where we experimented with how to display it, and Jen came up with the idea of hanging it from invisible wire. I think it's ok as a whole piece, in how it's hung and looks, but by the end of the project I was really wishing I'd focused more on illustration, maybe going in a new direction or development, rather than the massive research tangent I went off on. BUT it is over now, and I am now back in the practise of drawing in pencil, which is good. Since then I have been quite focused on the idea of expanding my printing, am looking forward to the new year beginning at Camberwell.